By:  Kaylie McNoor

In a blistering interview that aired Tuesday night, Mark Epstein, brother of the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, dismissed the federal government’s latest findings on his brother’s death as “stupid,” deriding what he characterized as a clumsy and unconvincing effort to silence lingering doubts about what happened inside a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019.

Speaking with NewsNation host Chris Cuomo, Mark Epstein took particular aim at FBI Director Kash Patel, who has publicly and repeatedly asserted that Epstein’s death was unequivocally a suicide. As The New York Post reported on Wednesday, federal officials have maintained that position in the face of widespread public skepticism, bolstered by a cascade of irregularities and unanswered questions surrounding Epstein’s death.

“I laughed at how stupid it was,” Mark Epstein told Cuomo, reacting to Patel’s recent comments at a Senate hearing, in which the FBI chief cited his experience as a federal prosecutor to justify his certainty. “Every time they say something or do something to try to quash the fact that he was most likely murdered, they just put their foot further down their mouths.”

Mark Epstein was unsparing in his criticism of Patel, pointing out that the FBI director is not a forensic pathologist and possesses no medical qualifications to make such a definitive statement.

“Was Kash Patel in that autopsy room? No,” Epstein said. “Was Kash Patel in the prison when they found Jeffrey? No, I don’t think so — and if he was there, that raises an even bigger question.”

The New York Post has long tracked the myriad inconsistencies surrounding Epstein’s death, from broken surveillance cameras and sleeping guards to the bungled logs and the highly unusual circumstances under which one of the most high-profile federal inmates in U.S. history died. For Mark Epstein, these details form the architecture of what he believes is an unresolved homicide.

He invoked the findings of two medical examiners who were involved in autopsies of his brother — Dr. Kristin Roman, who conducted the official New York City autopsy, and the more widely cited Dr. Michael Baden, a renowned forensic pathologist who was present during the procedure at the family’s request.

Baden, whose observations were previously reported by The New York Post, publicly questioned the suicide conclusion, citing broken bones in Jeffrey Epstein’s neck that were more consistent with manual strangulation than hanging. Dr. Roman, while issuing an official ruling of suicide, did not address several anomalies that Baden highlighted, leaving the door open for continued public doubt.

Mark Epstein seized on this uncertainty during his appearance Tuesday, suggesting that the experts’ inability to make firm conclusions should prompt further scrutiny — not a rush to shut the door on alternate theories.

“The evidence just doesn’t add up,” he said. “People with real credentials, medical professionals who know what they’re looking at, aren’t saying what Kash Patel is saying. That should concern everyone.”

The Department of Justice this week released a memo reaffirming its position that Epstein’s death was self-inflicted. The report mirrored prior conclusions, asserting that there was “no credible evidence” to suggest foul play. That conclusion, echoed in Patel’s Senate testimony, has been heavily criticized by skeptics, who argue that the DOJ has a vested interest in bringing finality to an unresolved scandal that implicates powerful figures across politics, finance, and royalty.

As The New York Post emphasized in its coverage, the DOJ’s latest findings also brushed aside another controversial issue: the so-called Epstein “client list.” Attorney General Pam Bondi had claimed in February that such a list existed and was “sitting on my desk right now to review.” The DOJ now flatly denies that Epstein maintained such a document, stating in the memo that “there is no evidence of a client list or other compilation of contacts for illicit activity.”

The abrupt contradiction has only fueled further distrust. Mark Epstein, echoing the sentiments of many Americans who have followed the case, indicated that the federal government’s denials were not only suspicious but symptomatic of a larger cover-up.

“When they say there was no client list, what they mean is they don’t want to look for one,” he said. “This isn’t about truth anymore. It’s about managing fallout.”

As The New York Post report noted, the Epstein saga remains a cultural lightning rod — a nexus of conspiracy, injustice, and unanswered questions. The disgraced financier’s alleged network of elite clients, shrouded in secrecy and protected by opaque legal maneuvers, has kept the public’s attention fixed on the case more than four years after his death.

For critics such as Mark Epstein, the refusal to entertain the possibility of murder or to investigate the claims of those who question the official narrative represents a dereliction of justice.

“Kash Patel can say whatever he wants,” Mark Epstein concluded. “But when you rely on press conferences instead of evidence, when you ignore medical findings and eyewitness failures, when you dismiss every red flag as conspiracy — you’re not looking for truth. You’re covering it up.”

In the absence of new indictments, documents, or whistleblowers, it appears that the Justice Department is prepared to treat the Epstein case as closed. But if recent polling and New York Post commentary are any indication, the American public — and certainly Jeffrey Epstein’s brother — will not let the story rest quietly in its jailhouse grave.